Who Is Region News Source and How Did They Get Started?
Occasional questions come up concerning who is Region News Source and where did they come from all the sudden? Today we will explain to those how this all started and what our goals are for “The Region”
Initially RNS started about 2 years ago in 2018 by the founder Paul Goddard of Munster, in an effort to provide coverage of local incidents involving first responders in a three county area. Goddard who is actually an owner of StormViewLIVE & SVLMedia LLC a weather video brokering company that supplies national networks with weather content. He is no stranger to the news world and dealing with breaking coverage.
Goddard a full time steelworker by morning and a single dad of two children had a knack for covering breaking news. Over the last couple years Goddard became more involved in providing video coverage (stringing) for Chicago News outlets with crimes / fires / and feel good stories the networks needed video on since he wasn’t able to travel as far with raising his children. However Goddard quickly learned not every story was wanted by the main stream Chicago channels but local residents still wanted to know what was occurring around them because it was important to them. Local newspapers were only doing so much to cover all the stories and many didn’t want to pay the fees associated with reading important stories that effected safety around them. Goddard says, “The amount of people in the area realizing I was out there covering events wanted to know more on what was occurring and began tagging myself on social media platforms. At that time I wanted to provide them with truth and facts in a timely manner while stomping out wildfire rumors that are easily shared on social media.” “One of the main perks of RNS is it being an unbiased non political publication that only focuses on the incidents happening now.”
As seen on WJOB
Goddard decided with all the stories he was covering he would take it to the next level and provide some light on these incidents. In doing so videos and pictures were just not enough to provide truth and facts to the public, which is important when reporting incidents and stomping social media rumors. Another level or work was needed to get the facts and get the correct information to the public so Goddard met with local departments from a four county area, city by city, department by department and made contacts that were able to provide him with reporting correct coverage. That’s when RNS was formed on social media to get the word out and help local law enforcement agencies spread the coverage they also needed in getting cases solved with the public’s assistance.
Initially RNS was run on pages on three social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Goddard says he learned quickly the time and funding needed to cover the entire area was more then he anticipated. Over the last year Goddard put together a 8 member team that helped him gather stories and facts for articles from across the region. This team was needed so that nothing was overlooked or missed on incidents. The team is compromised of social media news hounds to say the least. They are apart of city groups on Facebook, scanner listener groups, and connected individuals to many agencies. Without them it would be impossible to keep up with everything on his own, he stated.
Video From WJOB
In recent months Goddard says a website was needed for a cleaner all in one place to find the stories people needed while possibly looking at an avenue to bring some income in to cover the costs of providing the coverage needed. The website went off without a hitch to say the least. A small investment and placement of ads made it possible to still provide the content for the Region not only on social media but to people not using social media. The ads were able to cover the costs for the server and maintenance of vehicles to cover the wide area and to make sure the time of handling these stories wasn’t going to waste. The website which has been active for two months now is hitting 30-75 thousand views per day depending on the stories covered. 1.5 million hits the site were reached in the first month of it being online. Goddard says the compliments, tags, and shares are motivation for him to keep going in this goal of outreach to our area. “In the last year it is believed that numerous missing people and criminals have been captured because of these shares,” Goddard said. RNS is also a huge part on why so much main stream media coverage has been focused on the area in recent years. The networks come here to gather local stories and speak to Goddard weekly on covering these for their respective news groups. The more news coverage on stories the better, Goddard said. The plan as of now is to continue to grow and provide facts and information in a timely fashion to area residents. The viewers tips & shares it what makes this a success he stated.
http://www.regionnewssource.org
Make sure to save the link and add it to your home screen on your devices for easy quick access.
Paul, those of us like myself who have grown up in NW Indiana for 58 yrs( my entire life) find it extremely informational and helpful to be kept in the loop while things are currently happening in our surroundings. As a known community activist myself I clearly understand and applaud your dedication, inspiration and hard work, I know what it takes to stay fully involved in the best interests if our community! Thank you for all you do, Beth Villarreal
Thank you, I give you a s star rating for your reporting.